2006 Mac Pro upgrade questions

[mattglickstein]

Hi,

I have a 2006 Mac Pro (2 X 2.66 Dual Core) w/6 GB RAM, two 750 GB HDs, and one 1TB black caviar HD running Snow Leopard. I produce music, and am in need of space and more power. I am posting here to see if it's possible to upgrade this machine and be able to do what I need for at least 5 more years--or is it better to just start over with a new iMac, or buy a Mac Pro when the new one comes out?

Here's what I was thinking for the upgrade:

--Eventually upgrade to 16 or 32 GB Ram
--Replace my two 750 GB HDs with 2 TB Black Caviars (WD)
--Upgrade the CPU chips--is this possible, and can it be done by someone with no experience doing that type of thing? How fast can I get this machine going?
--I've also heard about possibly getting an SSD to speed things up, but that sounds expensive, complicated, and unnecessary. Any opinions on that?


Any suggestions or opinions are welcome, and I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[ashman70]

There are multiple threads in this forum that discuss doing exactly what you propose.

The short answer is, yes its possible to upgrade all of what you want in your MP 1,1. It will cost you, the most probably in RAM as FB DDR2 RAM for these machines is not cheap, although you can search Ebay for deals on RAM and the CPU's. You cam upgrade the CPU's to two quad cores giving you a total of 8 cores. You can upgrade to an AMD 5770 video card, add larger hard drives and most certainly add an SSD.

 

[macn00blet]

Yep definitely you can upgrade your machine.

I did all of the noted upgrades in the past 2 months and I'm happy I did. I was considering getting a new MP but the few thousand was a tough pill to swallow.

I upgraded the hard drive first and found that made a huge impact! I bought a 128GB SSD and it helped tremendously. I run all the programs from that drive and keep all of my data on the other drives.

 

[akadmon]

I probably represent the minority opinion, but what the heck, here it is anyway.

Aside from SSD, larger HDDs, video card and RAM (the first three of which you can take with you to the next MP you buy), upgrading a 2006 MP (meaning replacing the processor) does not make sense. You're better off selling your old MP and applying the proceeds to a newer model. I see bare bones MPs 1,1 advertised for $1000-1200 on Craigslist, which means you can get a base 2010 for as little as $1000 (a 2.8 GHz quad 2010 is $$2119 in Apple's refurb store). Yes, that's more than a processor upgrade (probably by at least $500) but you get a faster machine that is covered for the next 3 years by Applecare.